Two items are prominent in the news at the moment: Matthew Flinders’ remains have been unearthed at Euston Station, London; and there is heated debate in Australia about the most appropriate day to recognise as ‘Australia Day’.
Matthew Flinders’ remains have been unearthed at Euston Station and it has been proposed that he be re-buried in “an appropriate churchyard” presumably in England.
There is heated debate in Australia about the most appropriate day to recognise as ‘Australia Day’. Dates discussed seem to be restricted to 26 January (the present gazetted ‘Australia Day’); 25 April (Anzac Day); and 1 January (Federation Day). There are many reasons why none of these three dates is suitable as a day revered by all Australians as our “national day”.
26 January – There is a concerted move to have this (only recently acknowledged) day labelled “Invasion Day”, a movement led by a minority of pale-skinned First Australians unprepared to acknowledge in most cases that a major percentage of their individual DNA scores derives from the invaders. This minority movement has credibility, but its supporters seem unable/unwilling to offer a suitable alternative, acceptable to the majority of our citizens, to establish a day of national celebration.
25 April – The anniversary of two important military exercises, firstly the aggressive landing at Gallipoli by the Anzacs seeking to capture Turkey (1915). The same date is also the anniversary of the participation of Australians in the defence (1918) of Villers-Bretonneux, a truly heroic victory that helped bring an end to World War I. Nonetheless, this date, while important in military terms, is a day of Observance, not celebration.
1 January – The day on which (1901) the Australian Federation was proclaimed, based on a national Constitution, in which it was decreed that, in reckoning the national population figures, “Aboriginal natives of Australia shall not be counted”; they were deemed to be a sub-species. Additionally the self-styled Fathers of Federation (all white, elderly males) bequeathed to us an inflexible Constitution, a hotch-potch of railway gauges and selfish clauses destined to preserve power for themselves within their various states and through their political parties. 1 January is an important date, a natural consequence to the definition by Flinders as an “island continent”, but hardly a national day of celebration, other than as New Year’s Day.
SUGGESTED NEW DATE
Thursday 8 September 1803 was the date Matthew Flinders considered that the circumnavigation of Australia was complete. He had in fact completed the journey in June 1803. See his Journal, Voyage to Terra Australis, Volume II. p. 321. On 8 September he officially reported to Governor King that he had circumnavigated an island continent, Terra Australis – occupied by First Australians in many of the coastal places he visited, where their distinctive languages were spoken. He accurately recorded words of some of those languages. He was also aware, of course, of the later British presence that had been established at Sydney Cove in 1788 and that English was the language of those new citizens. Details of his incarceration by the French at Mauritius and his death in London on 19 July 1914 – the day after publication of his Journal and charts – are well-known.
I suggest :
- Bring the remains of Matthew Flinders to Australia for ceremonial burial at Circular Quay (Port Jackson), where he began and ended the circumnavigation. It should be possible to establish with his family connections and the British government that he is indeed a hero in Australian as well as British history, perhaps even more so here. He could be awarded the honorific Conditor Australis, Founder of Australia.
- Establish 8 September as “Australia Day”, commemorating 8 September 1803, henceforth called Foundation Day.
- Establish Pitjantjara as Lingua Australis and have the (?amended) National Anthem translated into that language, in order that dual versions – Australian and English – may be presented. If the language of Bongaree/Bungaree, a First Australian man who accompanied Flinders, is still valid, that is a consideration, but a more acceptable tactic might be an invitation for any surviving Australian language to be used accordingly, provided the version is certified as accurate and appropriate (the Commonwealth of Australia holds copyright authority in this respect). There is no doubt that Pitjantjara is the most widely known Australian language and its orthography is very straightforward.
Ted Egan is a former public servant, entertainer and Administrator of the Northern Territory. He lives at Alice Springs.
This post kindly provided to us by one of our many occasional contributors.
Comments
6 responses to “TED EGAN. Matthew Flinders: Conditor Australis.”
I fundamentally disagree with changing the date. It remembers the first day of what became modern Australia. It marks opportunity day. For the convicts it was a chance to restart their life, any person with skills was made free and within two generations they could become leading members of the community, For the pre1788 migrants, the Aboriginals, it gave them the chance to move out of their African Middle Stone Age culture relatively unchanged for up to 150,000 years, who lived in some 700 tribes speaking over 300 languages. Australians are all descended from migrants who have come together from around the world to form one nation. 26 January remembers the first day it started. It is truly ‘Improvement Day’.
I agree with Lorraine Osborn on 8 September to celebrate the date of the name Australia. Her proposal also includes consultation with Indigenous people, the people who are overlooked and some traumatized by our celebration of Invasion Day on Jan 26th.
This is certainly supportable. An alternative date that might be considered on the date the first Federal election was held when all Australians were finally given the right to vote. This was 30 November 1963.
Although all women had the right to vote in all Federal elections since 1903 (pursuant to the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902), Aborigines did did not.
It was not until the 1962 when the Commonwealth Parliament amended the Commonwealth Electoral Act so that Aborigines were finally given the right vote.
This would be an excellent day to celebrate our modern but not always inclusive nationhood.
Tom Kelly
Please, could this magnificent proposal be sent to all our First Nation leaders and all paliamentarian’s.
I, too, was thrilled at the Euston Station ‘discovery’ which ranks with the Richard of Gloucester /carpark dig and, perhaps, one day, Shakespeare’s head.
But I feel in my bones that MF should lie where many of us hope to do, at home or near our birthplace. A plaque in Westminster Abbey should memorialize this fact, and his greatness.
In Australia we should do much, but not claim the remains, which are English.
I have been an advocate for 1 January as a National Day date because it marks the day ‘we’ entered the company of world ‘nations’.
But Ted Egan has persuaded me otherwise: and it is even more logical than 1 January that the Name-Date of the Continent – 8 September – as the anniversary of Flinders’s bestowal of the beautiful name : Australia – is more appropriate and meaningful for all Australians.
I’m afraid I can’t support Pitjantjatjara (in which I took classes in the late 1970s) as a national language : my Ngarinyin and other former clients will turn in their graves!
But English IS a world language, spoken, internationally, even by Chinese and South Asians. Something of a tradition worth keeping.
Good one Ted. I’m in.